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Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that eye can see things very differently depending on where (and when) it is. Buzzfeed’s video staff explored this idea by creating a video with live models showing us how the concept of an ideal woman’s body type has changed throughout history.

We all probably have some idea of how women from all of the different historical periods in the video dressed, but the idea that there were different ideal body types may not have occurred to many of us. The uniform white bathing suits that all of the models in the video are wearing help accentuate the differences between their bodies, doing away with other potential historical elements that we might have focused on otherwise like clothing or jewelry.

It all just goes to show that there’s no one right way to interpret feminine beauty. Which historical period do you think “got it right?”

An electric tricycle, capable of a top speed of 15 mph, has driven into a safety row on its first day on the road.

The Sinclair C5 – launched by the computer millionaire, Sir Clive Sinclair – is designed for short journeys around town and can be driven by anyone over the age of 14. But the £399 vehicle, driven by a battery-powered motor, only 2 ft. 6 in high and six feet long, has raised safety concerns.

It’s a sort of milk float you’re putting into the traffic stream

Dr Murray MacKay, Birmingham University

The British Safety Council says the vehicle is too close to the ground and the driver has poor visibility in traffic. He sits with his legs outstretched and the controls are beneath his thighs.

With a top speed of only 15 mph, safety experts say the C5 could be vulnerable to knocks from other cars. The vehicle is open-topped and the driver is not obliged to wear a crash helmet or even have a driving licence.

Dr Murray MacKay head of the Accident Research Unit at Birmingham University said: "It’s a sort of milk float you’re putting into the traffic stream and that sort of dislocation is going to cause conflicts, particularly turning right."

Sir Clive claims his new vehicle will be a perfect runabout: "It’s ideal for shopping, going to the office, going to school, any trip around town."

BBC News asked British motor racing legend, Stirling Moss, to take the C5 for a spin around town. His verdict: "I think it’s safe if you drive it realising it isn’t a car… ride it just like a bicycle and I think you should be alright."

In Context

The Sinclair C5 was a commercial disaster. Only about 12,000 were ever produced. However, it has since achieved cult status and in 2002, a vehicle in mint condition could fetch up to £900 – compared with an original retail price of £399.

Prior to the C5, Sir Clive Sinclair had chalked up significant successes – the first pocket calculator, the first pocket television and the best-selling British computer of all time. He was awarded a knighthood by Margaret Thatcher.

Now in his sixties, Sir Clive still controls Sinclair Research. His recent inventions include a device which propels bicycles without the need for pedalling and a radio the size of a 10p coin, designed to fit in the ear.

Alela Diane Menig (born April 20, 1983), known as Alela Diane, is an American singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon.

Career

The songs for her album The Pirate’s Gospel were written on a trip to Europe. They were recorded in her father’s studio and were initially self-released in 2004, in paper and lace sleeves with hand lettering. The album was issued in revised form by Holocene Music in October 2006, and received widespread critical acclaim.

A new song, "Dry Grass and Shadows", was issued on a compilation of Nevada City artists, and five more new songs were issued on a limited-edition 10" vinyl pressing, Songs Whistled Through White Teeth, released in the UK in October 2006. The Pirate’s Gospel was released in the UK on Names Records in April 2007, garnering favorable reviews in The Times and NME.

She sang on an album of cover songs, The Silence of Love by Headless Heroes, released in November 2008, recorded by Eddie Bezalel and Hugo Nicholson with musicians Josh Klinghoffer, Joey Waronker, Gus Seyffert, Leo Abrahams and Woody Jackson.

Her second album, To Be Still, was released in February 2009 on Rough Trade Records. In early 2009 she toured the USA opening for Blitzen Trapper, and spent the better part of that year touring Europe.

Her third album, Alela Diane & Wild Divine was released in early April 2011, and was recorded with a backing band, Wild Divine, which included her father, Tom Menig, and her now ex-husband, Tom Bevitori. She and Wild Divine toured the U.S. and Europe to promote the album, and in July 2011, they opened for the Fleet Foxes on a string of dates. In the fall of the same year she also accompanied Fleet Foxes as opening act in Europe.

In 2012 her song "Take Us Back" was featured on the end credits of the episodic adventure game The Walking Dead (Episode 5: No Time Left) by Tell tale Games.

Her fourth album, About Farewell, was released (on her own label Rusted Blue Records) in digital format in June 2013, with a physical release to follow in July.

Diane remarried in 2013 and gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Vera Marie, in early November 2013.

Gypsy Girl: “Mean” Mary James, youngest of six children, was born in Geneva, Alabama, though her family lived in Florida, a couple miles below the Alabama line. Her mom (author, Jean James) and dad (WWII veteran, William James) lived a very nomadic lifestyle. On one occasion they packed up the family (Mary was four at the time) and moved from Florida to North Minnesota, near the Canadian border, to rough it in the wilds.

First Guitar: Mary’s oldest brother, Jim, who’d just joined the Navy, sent the family a guitar and a compilation tape of songs he liked. With a battery-powered tape-player, the family listened to the music of Hank Williams, Jr. and Dolly Parton. It wasn’t long before Mary was singing the songs plus vocalizing all the instrumentation. Seeing her talent, Mom and Dad bought guitar books, and Mom started teaching all the children to play the guitar. Mary and her brother Frank were the two who would turn music into a career.

Mary learned to read music before she could read words and was an official singer/songwriter before she’d started her first day of kindergarten. With the help of her mom, she wrote her theme song “Mean Mary from Alabam’.” The press immediately baptized her with this handle, and she’s been Mean Mary ever since.

On the Road Again: Mary was now playing guitar, banjo and fiddle. She recorded her first album at age six, and spent five hours a day on instrumental and vocal practice along with her live performances. When she upped her music study time to seven hours a day, and her road shows began to multiply, it became impossible for her to attend school. At the end of the second grade, she went into home study and also started appearing daily on theCountry Boy Eddie Show, a regional TV program out of Birmingham, Alabama. During this time, she also appeared regularly in Nashville, Tennessee at the Nashville Palace, on the Nashville Network, the Elvis Presley Museum, and on Printer’s Alley. In spite of her hectic schedule, she found time for her studies and when only nine years old she aced a state required test at a 12th grade equivalency level. This wasn’t surprising to her parents who had witnessed her read the entire Gone with the Wind novel at age seven.

Her guitarist brother, Frank James, who’d now joined her on stage and in the home school program, also excelled in his studies and at age fourteen taught himself trigonometry. He graduated from high school at fifteen.

Back in Time: At one point, Mary and Frank were booked at a living history event. They immediately fell in love with folk music. They’d grown weary of the commercial, country-music scene and so started a tour of historic folk and Civil War era music. It wasn’t long before they were one of the most sought after historical folk groups in the country, being booked every weekend and having to turn down hundreds of shows a year.

was only one problem with this new arena of music to Mary’s fourteen-year-old eyes: all those mounted reenactors riding around while she stood in the dust and played music. Mary had always wanted a horse, and being a wise teenager she slyly told her parents that the only reason she’d worked so hard on music was so she could one day afford one! When her brother, Frank, who was equally drawn by equestrian interests, seconded her resolve, Mom and Dad gave in.

California, Here They Come:In the meantime, Mary and Frank were eliciting interest from a California music agency, and Mom James had just signed a contract with a California literary agency. The other children were all grown and on their own by this time, so Mom, Dad, Frank, and Mary did the “Beverly Hillbilly” thing. They packed all their belongings into, and onto, their vehicles, hooked up the horse trailer with Rogue and Apache, and drove to LA.

For the next three years, Mary and Frank were involved in almost every TV show and movie produced in the Hollywood area – be it as background actor, stand-in, photo double, stunt double, or day player. Mary found a large, beat-up, slide-in camper for the back of her pickup truck that cost only two hundred dollars, and that became her home. She parked it wherever it was convenient, and sometimes in places not so convenient. There are no doubt still dents on low-hanging limbs all over the LA area, thanks to Mary and her top-heavy home. And then there was the time she took the mirror off a movie executive’s car at Fox studios by trying to squeeze through an impossibly-narrow area. She bought him a new mirror but never got a movie roll out of the happening! It was exciting, interesting work but it wasn’t furthering her music career, and the horses didn’t like it at all. They longed for the green fields they were used to. Eventually the James Gang migrated back to the South, finding homes in Tennessee.

The Great Setback:The horses were happy, and Mary’s music career was really taking off, when the most devastating happening of her life occurred. One rainy evening in February she was the front-seat passenger in a small car when the driver lost control, Mary’s head broke the windshield and her neck cracked the hard plastic dashboard. The twisted state of her neck convinced the driver she was gone. He even called her parents and told them she was dead. But a high-speed ambulance ride and quick medical attention at the hospital saved her life – if not her future. It was there she received news that, to her, was worse than death – her right vocal cord was paralyzed.

She brought her battered body home from the hospital and began her fight. Music was her life – had always been her life – and she couldn’t give it up. She purposely set herself to do the hardest of physical tasks, demanding her body to get well. She stacked hay bales, built fences and barns, took winter swims, and constantly worked her vocal cords. The rest of her body soon recovered from the trauma, but her right vocal cord stayed paralyzed. The left side tried to compensate for it, making it possible for her to sing a little, but only for about ten minutes at a time, and her voice was dead next to its former capabilities.

A Bit of Light in the Darkness: It was one joyous day, six months later, a throat specialist told her there was slight movement in her frozen vocal cord. He said it might not totally recover, might not even improve further, but his news was enough for Mary. That was when her real work began. She booked shows, sang when she could, and when she couldn’t she’d play her instruments.

She started touring again, sometimes alone, sometimes with her brother, and sometimes with her full band. She also got her own Nashville TV show: The Never-Ending Street – a documentary/reality type show depicting the trials and joys of a touring musician.

During this time, she co-wrote novels with her mom. To date, she is the award winnng author of 2 published novels – available now at bookstores:Sparrow Alone on the Housetop, and Wherefore Art Thou, Jane?. Another novel is due for release in 2014.

It was also during this same time that her YouTube videos began to take off. They’d started out with a few daily visits but quickly climbed to over 4000 visits a day. Her bookings increased and her international fan base took a leap of growth. This was all good news, but the greatest thing to happen during this time was the recovery of her vocal cord. She’d worked it back to life!

On the Never-Ending Street: Today she labors on her TV show, produces music for herself and other artists, produces shows and videos, is co-writing a novel trilogy about the music world, is an endorsing artist for Deering Banjos, and is constantly touring.

There is not room here to tell the whole life story of Mean Mary, but if you’d like to hear more of it, listen to her music—it’s all there.

Biography

John was born in Bastrop, Louisiana. At a very young age, she and her parents moved to north across the state-line into Arkansas where her father got a job in a paper mill near the community of Cullendale. There four brothers (including R&B singer Little Willie John) and two sisters were born. In 1941, after her father was able to secure a better job, the family moved to Detroit, where two additional brothers were born. The family lived in a new housing development at Six Mile and Dequindre Road. She attended Cleveland Intermediate School, and then Pershing High School, which is at Seven Mile and Ryan Road. After graduating from Pershing High School, she took a job as an insurance representative at Friendship Mutual Insurance Agency, a company run by Berry Gordy‘s mother, Bertha. Later, she left the company and spent two years at Lewis Business College. She subsequently ran into Mrs. Gordy again, who told Mable that her son Berry was writing songs and was looking for people to record them. Gordy began coaching her and would accompany John on piano at local engagements. This continued until 1959, when John performed at the Flame Show bar on John R Street at the last show that Billie Holiday did in Detroit, just weeks before Holiday’s death.

The same year, John began recording for Gordy. First she was signed to United Artists, but nothing was released there. Eventually, she became one of the first artists signed to Tamla, Gordy’s own label. In 1960, she released her first Tamla single, "Who Wouldn’t Love a Man Like That?," a romantic blues number, to no success. John followed with "No Love" in June of that year and then with "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" by year’s end. While Motown was beginning to have success with acts like The Miracles and The Marvelettes (and later The Supremes, who had sung background vocals for John) that appealed to teenagers and young adults, it failed to make an impact in the established blues market. As a result, Gordy soon thinned out his roster of early blues artists. While John continued to be used as a background singer, Gordy dissolved her contract in 1962.

After leaving Motown, John spent several years as a Raelette, backing many Ray Charles hits. In 1966 she attempted a solo career again, signing with Stax Records. Her first single with the label was "Your Good Thing Is About To End." The song peaked at #6 on the R&B chart, and even managed to cross over onto pop radio, peaking at #95 there. She released six more singles for the label, none of which captured her first single’s success. After leaving Stax Records in 1968, John rejoinedThe Raelettes for several years. She left secular music in 1973, and began managing Christian gospel acts, occasionally returning to the studio as a singer.